US intentions in Pakistan, dubious: Analyst

Syed Tariq Pirzada, political and strategic affairs analyst in an interview with Press TV

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Well in Pakistan the US intentions are very dubious. On the one hand the last CIA director Mr. Panetta has said a year and a half ago that there are no more than 20 al-Qaeda operatives left in Pakistan, Afghanistan area. Since then dozens and dozens and dozens of drone attacks have killed so many folks allegedly as the US calls them the al-Qaeda people or the Arabs or the Tajiks."

The US spy agency, CIA, has called for a significant expansion of its fleet of assassination drones to bolster the agency’s terror campaign of targeted bombings in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.
The plan, submitted to the White House by the Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus, would enable the spy agency to boost its persisting campaign of deadly strikes against suspected militant areas in Yemen and Pakistan.
According to a Friday report by The Washington Post which quoted officials that spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue it would also shift the assassination drones to “emerging al-Qaeda threats in North Africa or other trouble spots.”
American officials at the White House, the CIA and the Defense Department have refused to comment on the drone expansion proposal, says the daily, and those who did, spoke on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that contrary to US claims, 80 percent of people killed by US assassination drone strikes in the country are innocent civilians.
Talking to reporters outside the Parliament, Malik added that the total of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks conducted by US drones in Pakistan amounted to 336 attacks, killing nearly 2,300 people.
The drone strikes have triggered massive anti-US demonstrations across Pakistan to condemn the United States’ violations of their national sovereignty.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Syed Tariq Pirzada, political and strategic affairs analyst, to further discuss the issue.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: In Pakistan of course we know that the drone issue has become a very serious issue, has caused a lot of anti-US sentiments, is one of the countries that is receiving a lot of these drone attacks. What do you think about this latest decision by the CIA to increase the number of these drones?
Pirzada: You know when President [Barack] Obama ran for the office for the first time, he made a commitment to the US people that he would expand the war especially in countries like Pakistan and if Pakistan won’t listen to them they will take unilateral action, widen the horizon of the drone war and correct the situation against the al-Qaeda as they perceive it and the terrorist elements around the world.
This is exactly what they are doing and this is also happening very interestingly at the time when the US election is about to be held in about couple of weeks, then also it is happening at the time when in Pakistan the anti-drone campaign has picked up a historic momentum following a huge hundred thousand people march in Waziristan led by the cricketer turned politician Mr. Imran Khan.
This politician in Pakistan has really energized all the NGOs, the human rights lobbies and sections around the world and the world is coming to realize that a gross violation of international law is being committed by the United States.
Then as you pointed out that the CIA that has actually become, in fact if I correctly put it, has become a parallel army with the regular forces of the United States. It is asking for more drones, greater expansion of the drone war in Yemen now in Libya is also on the list and of course Pakistan where 3,000 people as you pointed out have been killed including a huge number of children.Press TV: Well right now the CIA director has said that we want these more drones to hit targets better in Pakistan and in Yemen he says and elsewhere in the world as well. Now what is your view about the effectiveness of these drones?
Of course, we are seeing the US say that they are targeting militants, that they are meant to effectively wipe out the al-Qaeda insurgency or the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan, Afghanistan effectively on the ground. Is that what is happening?
Pirzada: Well in Pakistan the US intentions are very dubious. On the one hand, the last CIA director Mr. Panetta has said a year and a half ago that there are no more than 20 al-Qaeda operatives left in Pakistan, Afghanistan area. Since then dozens and dozens and dozens of drone attacks have killed so many folks allegedly, as the US calls them the al-Qaeda people or the Arabs or the Tajiks.
But now I want you come to believe that because the drones are very accurate that all those people should have been killed long time ago and the drone war should have come to an end but because the ulterior motive of the United States are now very clear they want to keep Pakistan under constant military pressure and in threat of drone attacks so that Pakistan could follow the policy of the United States and to some extent they are succeeding because the President Zardari regime in Pakistan is simply toeing the foreign policy that has been suggested by the United States.
But on the other hand as I pointed out because [tens of thousands] of people are dying in Pakistan and because Pakistan’s violation of sovereignty is taking place it is as I said earlier a gross violation of international law because if tomorrow the Soviet Union decides to launch missile strikes into the United States on the pretension that look, our Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East is being threatened by the US military in that region because there is going to be a gathering of the US military in the Pacific as the United States has suggested, then would that be right? No, because international law is international law. The United States is playing a real spoiler of peace.
AHK/HGH